Home / Speeches and Seminars
The problem with most speakers is they're boring. While that's acceptable for a big-name corporate speaker (after all, many attendees just want to meet the big shots from the powerful companies in their industry), it's death for most seminars and tradeshows.
As one Fortune 100 company executive stated, "(Vincent's) an extremely entertaining speaker who provides clarity through hilarity -- educating an audience while entertaining them." Vincent also provides more "serious" (well, they're still not boring) seminars and training on web design.
This page is broken up into the following sections:
Vincent gives two types of speeches (follows)
All speeches are tailored to
the audience
Critiques
Seminars and Training
Video examples
Where Vincent has spoken
1. Speeches to audiences who need to be entertained.
Everybody has a web site and this target audience simply wants to be entertained by viewing "Car Wrecks on the Information Highway" -- as long as their site isn't the car wreck. (If there are companies you do or don't want mentioned, you'll need to provide a list to Vincent 30 days before the speech.)
Any group makes a good audience for this type of speech and the best fit is an organization -- doctors, lawyers, dentists, etc., Normally, Vincent will give a keynote or luncheon speech and he's been used to launch a show and to start the afternoon sessions -- whatever it takes to get the audience ready for the rest of the sessions. While Vincent educates the audience, the speech is geared toward getting people in a good mood.
Please note: Vincent is quite willing to provide your seminar attendees private "critiques" of their sites. Please go to "Critiques."
If you have questions about this type of speech, please e-mail
2. Speeches to audiences who want to learn while they're being entertained.
The only difference between this audience and the first is that it directly applies to the other speeches. The audience is educators, designers, information technology managers, etc., who are attending a conference or seminar directly relating to web design and how it should be used. Vincent shows examples of the incorrect use of stylesheets, graphics mistakes, navigational miscues, and inaccessible and unusable sites -- topics that will be the focus of later in-depth seminars by other presenters. Once again, he sets the mood for the rest of the speakers.
Please note: Vincent is quite willing to provide your seminar attendees private "critiques" of their sites. Please go to "Critiques."
If you have questions about this type of speech, please e-mail
Vincent creates each speech for the needs and interests of the audience. While he avoids using sites from the audience, he will occasionally use a "reverse example" a nice site and say "These people would never do anything stupid like this example."
Instead of a speech, Vincent can provide an on-site critiquing session for your attendees or it can be done in conjunction with a speech. A standalone critiquing session would be four hours. If Vincent gives a one-hour speech, he can be available for a 3 hour critiquing session -- or whatever both parties negotiate.
The song "Everybody wants to go to heaven, but nobody wants to die" has its counterpart in the world of web design -- "Everybody wants their site critiqued, but nobody wants to have it critiqued in public."
Here's how a critique session with Vincent would work:
The hosting group would provide Vincent with:
Individuals would be ushered into the room and they would give Vincent the URL of the site they want critiqued. He would then give a "Quick Critique" -- usually 6-10 minutes in length. As you know, first impressions of a site are the ones that are most valuable because that's how it works in the real world -- you only have a few seconds to make an impression.
As Vincent critiques the site, his comments would be recorded and when the critique is completed he would give the attendee the tape so they could review it back at the office. The attendee would leave and the next person would be ushered in. The host would have to decide who gets in and in what order. The whole critique process would be private -- and that's the charm.
Vincent also provides web design, usability and accessibility critiques for individual sites outside of tradeshows and seminars. Please contact him for details.
Contact Vincent about site critiques.
Vincent gives private seminars and training courses -- usually under non-disclosure agreements. Your topic is his topic, but the two topics he's stressing are:
"Developing Your Critical Eye" -- a course for IT managers and professionals
"Fast 508: -- accessibility without the attitude" How to make your web site accessible as quickly as possible
If your program coordinator is interested in seeing additional online videos of Vincent's presentations, please e-mail.
Note: All videos on this site should be viewed with a high bandwidth connection.
A. Proof that web design and drugs don't mix.
B. One of the worst examples of navigation on the web.
C. The video below is an example of his tailored approach and was used at the joint conference for the Insurance Marketing Communications Association and the Life Communicators Association in Toronto.
Many of Vincent's seminars and speeches are to closed groups under non-disclosure. However, some of the places he has given keynotes and speeches include:
He's appeared on CNN, PBS, TechTV's Screen Savers, and been interviewed on numerous radio programs.
Vincent Flanders: entertaining even at a young age.
